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You can tell from the tagline that startup Spenz is targeting a young
demographic: “It’s like a good shot of wallet steroids with no
negative side effects.” The company, described as ‘Mint for Gen
Y’ by founder Justin Hein, is a budget tracking application for
web and mobile. Users input their purchases and tag them with
spending categories, similar to Twitter hashtags. For example you
could enter your lunch as $10 #eatingout, and it will categorize
it for you. You can also add people or locations, similar to @
names on Twitter – so you could add who you went for lunch with
and where (@adam @tgifridays). You can add and edit tags as you
see fit, and the app comes populated with generic tags like
#food, #coffee, etc. Creating budgets for any tag allows you to
see how far you are from your limit at any given time.

The more you tag your spending, the more badges you unlock –
they’re divided into general achievements (add the #movies tag 15
times and unlock the Movie Nerd badge), activities (add the
#hotel tag to unlock the Night Away badge), and Brands (add a
@McDonalds tag to unlock the Loving It badge). Soon the app will
offer offline rewards based on users’ spending habits and
achievements.

The bootstrapped Toronto-based company was the only Canadian
startup accepted to demo at TechCrunch
Disrupt - founder Hein says he hasn’t done much networking in
his local community, but the conference resulted in a who’s who
of the startup industry in his Skype contact list. He says he
would absolutely recommend launching at TC Disrupt for any
startup, and says that while the judges were harsher than he’d
wished at times, the exposure was invaluable. “When we built
Spenz we didn’t expect to attract so
many evangelists so quickly and have people addicted to
finding out where their money goes,” he says. “We think we really
hit a chord, and can’t wait to keep pushing new features.”

His team of eight is currently working on the next version of
Spenz – Hein says they’ll have at least two more updates this
year. The updates will involve location integration, other
platforms (the app is currently available for iPhone, but they’ll
add Android), offline rewards, and spending comparisons to other
users. It will also allow you to download spending reports so you
can see where you’re spending your money. It’s not easy to go
against an established personal finance tool like Mint, but Hein
says he’s up for the challenge. “Like most startups people told
us there was huge challenges to our product,” he says. “Since
launch the engagement, feedback and excitement from
users has been amazing. We are excited to keep pushing new and
improved features to make it even easier, rewarding and fun to
find our where your money goes.”